An HTML email template builder powered by Gulp.
The main features are:
- A basic front-end templating system with layouts and sass support
- Modular sections for different email layouts
- SASS stylesheets
- CSS inliner
- Gulp build tool and BrowserSync for live reloading
- Send test emails via Nodemailer
- Gulp tasks for an efficient workflow
You can download NodeJS from nodejs.org
$ npm install
# Or using Yarn
$ yarn installnpm run serve layoutName - starts a local webserver on http://localhost:8080
npm run serve layoutName -- --port=8888 - starts a local webserver on http://localhost:8888
npm run serve layoutName -- --open - opens the URL on your default browser automatically.
npm run build layoutName - builds production ready files in dist/production folder.
npm run build:minify layoutName - minifies your HTML files
npm run build:zip layoutName - builds files + creates a zip file of your images directory (for Campaign Monitor)
npm run mail - fires a test email using your default configuration in nodemailer.config.js (Please, refer to the Test Emails section
for more information)
npm run mail -- --to=email@example.com --subject='Lorem Ipsum' - send a test email with overrides
Continue reading below for more details
All files are under the src folder organised into separate layouts directories.
To start working on a new email template, just create a new folder under src/layouts or just clone
the example folder provided with this repository.
- layouts - layout templates
- layouts/styles - it's important that all the styles for the templates sit under a styles folder inside your template.
Also, in your template html file, the reference to the styles will always be
<!-- inject:css --><!-- endinject -->like in the example provided.
$ npm run serve layoutNamewhere layoutName is the name of the folder you want to serve
(eg. npm run serve example) to start a local webserver.
Visit http://localhost:8080 on your browser to test your templates.
You can also run:
$ npm run serve example -- --opento open the URL automatically on your default browser.
This also instantiates a watcher that:
- watches for file-changes in the source folder
- compiles SASS to CSS on-the-fly
- builds the HTML files from the templates
- outputs latest files to dist/local folder
- uses Browsersync to reload the browser
You can also choose a different port by passing the --port argument, e.g. gulp serve --port=8888. You can also change the port permanently in gulp.config.js.
$ npm run build layoutNameThis will compile a production-ready HTML to the dist/production folder. It does the following operations:
- compiles SASS to CSS
- builds the HTML files from the templates
- brings the CSS inline into the HTML and removes the CSS files (except
media-queries.css) - minifies the images (only those that have changed)
$ npm run build:minify layoutNameIf your newsletters are very long, you should minify the HTML so that Gmail doesn't clip them.
$ npm run build:zip layoutNameSome email tools require zip files to upload new templates.
$ npm run mailThis task will send a test email using Nodemailer. To know how to configure this project to use your Nodemailer configutration, please continue reading the following sections.
All configuration options are in the gulp.config.js file.
To send emails using Nodemailer, update nodemailer.config.js with your email credentials and other mail options.
Nodemailer lets you quickly test your html email templates.
First update nodemailer.config.js with your mailOptions
mailOptions: {
to: 'default@test.email.com', // Default address(es) to send test emails to (can be comma separated)
from: 'Email Template Generator <email@template.generator.org>', // Sender details
subject: 'Test email - sent by Email-Template-Generator' // Default subject line
},
imageHost: '' // Full url path to your image host, with a trailing slash.If you don't have yet a mailgun account. Register your free one here
After you have validated your credentials, reach your mailgun dashboard and create a new domain if you don't have one already on your list.
Then, you need to authorized your recipients in order to receive the test emails. So, click the Authorized recipients button and add your email address you want to use for testing the email templates.
After you're done with that, update your local nodemailer.config.js with your mailgun credentials
transportOptions: {
service: 'mailgun',
auth: {
user: 'postmaster@sandboxxxxxxx.mailgun.org',
pass: 'xxxxxx',
api_key: 'key-xxxxxx',
domain: 'sandboxxxxxxx.mailgun.org'
}
},If you're not sure how to update your configuration file properly try following these easy steps:
-
Log in your Mail gun dashbard and navigates into the Domanis section
-
Make sure you have a domain in the list and that is Active. If not, you'll need to activate that first.
-
Now click on your domain to disaply the domain information required by Nodemailer.
-
Now fill your configuration file with the following informations.
user: Default SMTP Login
pass: Default Password
api_key: API Base URL
domain: This is the full domain name. In our example it is: `sandbox189c721ac152422d94141484e7c2ccfa.mailgun.org`
Good! Now, you need to validate every single receipient if have included under the mailOptions.to key.
For doing that, there is a Manage Authorized Recipients button in the same page.
Click that and follow the instructions on screen.
Now you should be able to send and receive emails. If not, try to read this guide again or check the Mailgun support page.
Nodemailer supports a lot of services - see the full list here. To use your own SMTP configuration, see instructions here.
Mail Options
mailOptions: {
to: '',
from: '',
subject: ''
}Set default to, from and subject values. to and subject can be overridden by passing arguments to the task.
Finally, update imageHost with the full Url of the directory where your images are uploaded.
The mail task replaces the relative paths with this Url.
$ npm run mail -- --to=email@example.com --subject='Lorem Ipsum'To contribute, please fork the project and submit pull requests against the master branch.